


On The Hunt

by padfootfreak14



Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23683585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padfootfreak14/pseuds/padfootfreak14
Summary: Reader goes missing from her home (someone took her), a desperate Owen uses Blue to track her.
Relationships: Owen Grady/Reader
Kudos: 22





	On The Hunt

There was something about not being entirely forthcoming to someone you cared so much about that sat very poorly in your gut. When you had first been assigned by InGen to monitor the raptor project it had been made very clear that your job depended on you keeping your mouth shut about the plans they had for future application should the project be successful. When you accepted the job that didn’t seem like a problem, you were sure the raptors would never listen so the moral dilemma of telling someone that they wanted to turn dinosaurs in to military weapons was a moot point. You’d keep their secret and your job and just watch the whole thing fail miserably.

Maybe it would have if it had been anyone but Owen Grady working with the raptors. He’d accepted with seemingly mild irritation that he was going to have someone constantly monitoring his progress, at least as long as you didn’t get in his way he didn’t really care. From the start Owen was invested whole-heartedly in raising and training his pack. InGen wasn’t happy that only four of the eggs hatched and survived but the way you saw it less raptors meant a better chance of success, at least that’s what you told them. You were also unfortunately like Owen when it came to getting attached to the girls. It made you hope for their failure even more lest they try to turn those beautiful girls in to another weapon.

You hadn’t counted on Owen’s devotion to working with the girls any more than you anticipated getting more attached to him than you had his raptors. Maybe it was something about his genuine care for the animals or his general demeanor on the whole, either way you had immediately recognized it for what is was, a serious problem for you. How were you supposed to keep the secret from someone who thought that they were training the raptors to test their intelligence, to see what they could do, training them for knowledge not for seeing how they could benefit man? He made you hate yourself for having any part of this and he didn’t even know.

Owen himself had always been a little wary of what they were asking him to do. Training dolphins, training any other animal was one thing. Work had been ongoing in those fields for years, but training a dinosaur was entirely new. On top of that, they didn’t want him to train just any dinosaur they wanted him to try training raptors. Owen wasn’t sure what that was going to accomplish but he trusted their motives even less when they insisted on having someone monitoring his progress at any stage. He hated trying to get work done with someone looking over his shoulder all the time but he’d learned in the past that he wasn’t going to get rid of their person so he might as well accept it.

Owen was expecting some stooge, not the woman they sent who seemed as leery of InGen’s intentions as he did himself. He could certainly appreciate that you were willing to stay out of his way and let him do what he was supposed to be doing. He did think it was odd that everything InGen viewed as a setback to the program you seemed relieved about, but maybe it was just because you were a decent person and not hoping to see how you could cash in. It wasn’t like your reactions were doing any harm to the girls and that was what he cared about more than how InGen thought they were doing. Owen had quickly grown used to your presence, to the way you held the girls while they were still young enough to do so and helped him when he needed an extra set of hands.

“Y/N!” Owen called, not sure where you’d gotten off too. A shh from below was his only answer, looking down told him why. You were still down in the enclosure, sitting with Charlie asleep in your arms. “Thought you might’ve left,” Owen laughed softly after he’d come down to join you.

“Nope, it seems that I’ve been commandeered for nap time.” You hadn’t exactly been planning on ending up one of the young raptors in your arms. You had just popped in to check on them and to keep them from jumping you often got down to their level, which today Charlie had used as a chance to turn you in to her bed. Delta had been resting her head on your leg for a little while but wandered off before long.

“Good, I wanted to talk to you about something anyway, now you can’t run off.” Congratulations to Owen for immediately making you on edge. “Why did you take this job? For someone that’s supposed to be on InGen’s side and making sure things to according to their plan you get awfully excited every time things don’t.” It had been starting to bother him in all honesty. He wanted to trust how you were with the girls but he couldn’t understand your motives.

“I just want to see things go how they’re best for the girls, not how they’re best for what InGen wants.” You really couldn’t get much more in to it than that. If you even hinted at what InGen wanted the raptors for they’d fired you and have you thrown of the island faster than anything. Then it would be no more girls, no more Owen, no more anything you’d started to enjoy so much. “A big pack would’ve just caused fighting and made everything more difficult and I know they’re paying me to be looking out for their best interest, but what their best interest is, isn’t what’s in the girls’ best interest.”

“You know that I can tell you aren’t telling me everything right?” He could believe what you were telling him, but he could see from the way you tensed up that you weren’t saying everything.

“I can’t tell you everything Owen, believe me I want to but they’d ship me off faster than you could even blink and replace me with someone that listens. I just need you to know that I really am trying to do what’s best for the girls.”

“I believe that much,” Owen responded, smiling when Blue appeared and worked her way on to his lap. “Look I don’t like secrets, but I like you so I’m making an exception. You’ve been good with the girls and you’ve been helping me out so I don’t really want them sending in some moron that’s going to be looking over my shoulder every damn minute. Besides, the girls like you and I don’t think they’d be happy if I let you get carted off on them.”

“They’ll grow out of it, once they’re big enough to eat us they’ll forget all about how much they like using us for beds.”

“I don’t know, I think they’ll remember how we took care of them when they were babies. I’m not saying they wouldn’t still try and eat us but that’s instinct for them. I won’t keep coming in here with them but I’d put money on them remembering this.”

“That’s how you hope to train them.”

“Gotta start young and start with them trusting me. If they don’t trust me now they sure as hell won’t do it when they’re old enough to remind me who the boss is. Might not work at all but that’s all I’ve got to try and work with.”

“Establish trust and dominance in the pack early and hope it carries over. I think it’s a good idea in theory, we’ll just have to wait and see if it pays off or if they grow up and decide that since they can fend for themselves they don’t need anything to do with anyone else. It’s worth a try at any rate.”

“I don’t know what else I’d try, this isn’t an animal that you can just raise up and think it’ll listen. They’ll be bigger than me when they’re grown and most animal bigger than you don’t really like to listen to something they know they could take down. If I can keep their trust then this might work but they have to trust me.”

“Well, I don’t know about the girls but I think you’re a pretty easy guy to trust.” You still didn’t really think this was going to work but Owen sounded so hopeful that you couldn’t ruin that for him. You didn’t want InGen to get their way, but at the same time you wanted this to work for Owen.

“You want to get dinner later?” Maybe he was reading a little too much in to this or maybe he was crossing a line but it couldn’t hurt to try. The thought occurred to Owen that maybe when he’d said he liked you that you considered it to mean as something completely platonic. It also occurred to him that maybe you wouldn’t want to cross any sort of line between the two of you given your position but he was going to try anyway. If you weren’t in to him that way alright, he could absolutely manage working with you as friends, if you were fantastic!

You hesitated, long enough that you could see the optimism of a positive response start slipping from Owen’s face. You loved spending time with him of course, cared about him and all of that. But you were here to watch him train the raptors so InGen could use them, surely if he knew that he wouldn’t be so eager to take you out. He’d already said he’d make an exception for whatever you were keeping from him but would he say the same thing if he found out? Still, would you be able to keep working with him like this when you knew that it could be something more but you were letting fear stop you?

“I think this could end up being a potentially bad decision but yes. I’d love to get dinner with you Owen.” This really did have the potential to end badly, but no one ever got anywhere in life without taking some risks. It wasn’t like your bosses had made you aware of any rule forbidding being in a relationship with him, or the park itself and you had to remind yourself that one date didn’t guarantee anything further. You didn’t want to get your hopes up, or set your expectations too low at the same time. You were aiming for somewhere in the middle but you were reasonably sure you’d end up diving in head first with a serious hope for more than just one date.

“You said that about the girls too and you’re sitting here holding Charlie while she sleeps.”

“There’s still time for them to have been a bad decision!” You laughed.

“It’s still a bad decision even if you enjoyed yourself?”

“When you put it that way it sounds bad, but something can still be a bad decision even if it made you happy for a while. That doesn’t mean you regret making the decision, just that it might’ve been a bad one.”

“Give me one example, right now. One example where something is a bad decision, made you happy but you don’t regret it.” The man couldn’t just be satisfied that you said you’d go out with him.

“Taking this job. I know right now that it’s a bad decision and it really probably isn’t the right thing. I don’t regret it, if I hadn’t take the job I wouldn’t have met you or the girl and it makes me happy.”

“If it makes you happy Y/N, it isn’t a bad decision.”

“I’m not going to sit here and argue with you about it, you see it from your perspective not mine. From where I’m sitting it was a bad decision and I hate myself for even putting myself in this position. Eventually it’ll come to a head and I hope that I can listen to you say I told you so, but I don’t see it playing out like that.”

“So quit thinking about it, have the girls wake up and wonder what has you so upset. I told you, I’m making an exception for you. If you think I haven’t realized that InGen isn’t just in this for the sake of knowing then you’re a little behind. If they think I’m letting them touch my girls they’ve got another thing coming.”

“I think that they couldn’t have picked anyone better to train the girls, but it’s going to bite them in the ass at the same time.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“That’s good because it was meant as one.”

“So what time do you want me to come get you, I’m sure you’ll want to change.”

“It won’t take me too long once we’re done here for the day, I take quick showers and I didn’t exactly bring a huge amount of clothes with me.” Hey, you were supposed to be here to work. If someone couldn’t understand that your wardrobe largely reflected that it was their problem. Owen however was relieved that he wasn’t going to have to sit around a few hours waiting on you to get ready. “One more thing though, you don’t have to go out of your way to impress me.”

“And if I just want to take you somewhere nice because I can?”

“Then you can? I’m just saying that it isn’t necessary, if that’s what you want to do great but don’t do it because you think that I want something nice. I like how casual you are with me, that doesn’t need to change just because you’re taking me out.”

Even with that much established, you did your best to dress on the up side of casual for the night. Owen refused to tell you where he planned on taking you so at least this way you weren’t underdressed for anything or overdressed. It probably didn’t really matter how you were dressed given the number of tourists bound to be around but that was tourists not you going on a date. You tried to not think about the date too much lest it make you more anxious about it than you already were. You weren’t comfortable with people spending money on you and Owen had made it very clear before you left the paddock that your money was going to be no good tonight. It left you hoping that he didn’t take you to Nobu or Winston’s because you weren’t sure you’d be able to enjoy yourself knowing he’d be spending a small fortune on you.

Owen was anticipating as much from you just from the way your face contorted when he told you that he wasn’t letting you pay for anything. If you wanted something casual and got so uncomfortable about him paying Owen had one seemingly great idea cross his mind. He had considered taking you to Sunrio but he wasn’t sure if you were much of a drinker or if you even liked Mexican food. More than that, if you happened to be a nervous drinker he didn’t need to end up carrying you to bed and have you with a killer hangover the next day. He could be sympathetic to your plight but the girls would be hard pressed to keep their noise level down.

Any option that you’d considered, this hadn’t been one of them. You had to hand it to Owen, he’d probably found the best possible way to keep it casual like you enjoyed and not give you heart failure when you saw the menu prices. If you were being honest you hadn’t even remembered that there was a Dave & Buster’s and even if you had you wouldn’t have expected coming here. You were still reasonably sure that Owen was going to end up spending a decent amount between dinner and games, but he had very successfully found a place to keep you distracted from that.

Between dinner and the fondue for dessert you were so full you could barely move. That didn’t stop you from destroying Owen at Skee-Ball. He in turn beat you at Race the Raptor and he slipped in a narrow victory at air hockey. While you were redeeming some of your tickets for a tacky little lava lamp you somehow missed Owen using what must have been a considerable amount of saved tickets to get you an unreasonably large stuffed dinosaur. You didn’t question why he had so many saved tickets, or for what reason he thought you needed a stuffed five foot raptor that looked nothing like a raptor. Regardless of how you thought or worried about how the date would go, it had been a long time since you’d enjoyed yourself so much. You were a bit loathe for the night to end but you did both need to be at the paddock the next day when Owen dropped you and the massive stuffed raptor off at your place you let him go after an appreciative good night kiss.

It was needless to say that when Owen brought up a second date you were all too happy to agree. You had every intention to insist that you get to pay this time but Owen ruined that plan by telling you there wasn’t going to be anything to pay for and to just come over his place when you were ready. He’d continued keeping with your request to retain the casual comfort of your relationship and instead of another trip in to the park for dinner Owen made dinner. That dinner was probably better than anything else you’d ever eaten and the sunset view over the water just made everything even better than it had already been. You fully blamed Owen for making things too casual and letting you fall asleep, at least when you woke up the next morning and took a moment to realize why the bed you were in didn’t seem familiar at all. You also told him that he could blame his sore back on himself for not just sleeping in the bed with you.

Things at the paddock seemed to be going as well as your relationship at least, which you kept fairly hush hush about as best you could. Unfortunately neither of you were perfect and while you behaved just fine during the day, when you left for the night and weren’t planning on meeting up you always left each other with a quick kiss. It shouldn’t have been surprising that someone had seen, or that they’d ratted you out to the boss if he could really even be called that. The whole thing just made you hate him more, twisting something that you were so invested in and trying to make it in to you going to extra mile to help the project along.

Hoskins wasn’t entirely wrong, since you’d started dating the girls did look at you and Owen as a pair. They’d regarded Owen as their singular leader before but now it was the two of you, they fully recognized that the two of you meant something to each other and so as it likely might’ve been in the wild the pack was led by the dominant pair, a complete set. That wasn’t why you were with Owen though, you hadn’t started dating Owen to achieve this and gain some control over the pack to steer it in the direction Hoskins wanted it to be. Even if you had the girls would have seen right through you, they would have known that you had ulterior motives and that you didn’t care for Owen like he cared for you.

Your distraction was another problem altogether. You knew that Owen had overheard Hoskins’ comments about you and Owen but you hadn’t had the chance to talk to him about it. You wanted to think that he knew that it was complete garbage, that in the time you’d been together he knew that you were invested in him not some hidden agenda. But you couldn’t help but worry, he’d walked off after that and like it had always been, work wasn’t the place to have relationship discussions. He had enough to deal with after another failed hunt with the girls, he didn’t need you coming to him with your insecurity that he might believe Hoskins over you. The girls had grown by leaps and bounds but while they tracked what they were given amazingly, getting them to not kill anything living that was put in the paddock was the issue.

Given that everyone else was afraid to get too close to the paddock, let alone go inside once the girls were locked up to clean up their latest mess, it usually fell on you or Owen. Barry wasn’t necessarily afraid but he refused to go in the paddock. It probably would’ve been safer to just leave whatever the girls had killed inside but for the sake of cleanliness and keeping down the stench it had become habit to remove any remnant before they could rot. You waited long enough to hear that the girls were contained before you checked that the cage door was locked, opened the gate and went inside. You did give it to the girls, this time they’d largely devoured what had once been a small pig so it was just a manner of getting what little was left in to a bag.

It was after you’d tossed the bag in to the cage and went back in to check that the girls hadn’t damaged anything that you started to realize something was amiss. It was unusually quiet in the paddock, noise from outside barely seemed to penetrate. You started to get the feeling that you were being watched, causing you to glance up to the catwalk, perhaps Owen was up there or one of the workers or maybe Hoskins trying to unnerve you. The catwalks were surprisingly devoid of anyone, adding to your discomfort. You felt like you were starting to get as paranoid as everyone else, clearly nothing was there. The girls were locked up, you were done checking everything over and you’d go sit somewhere for a few minutes and gather your bearings. That was exactly your plan until you were turning back to the gate and felt the hot burst of breath on your neck.

It wasn’t human, you were naïve enough to think that even for a moment. It felt like it had been forever since you’d been in the paddock with any of the girls loose and for good reason. You turned slowly, finding yourself face to face with Blue. Even if she wasn’t fully grown yet, at her current stance she stood even with you. It was part of the reason the girls got locked up if someone had to go in the paddock, it would be nothing at all for one of them to kill or seriously injure someone. But here you were, completely alone and wishing you’d have gotten Owen to come along as look out. You couldn’t even think enough to wonder why Blue wasn’t locked up with the other three, how they possibly could have missed Blue out of any of them.

“Hey beautiful,” You practically gasped out, hoping to hell that when Owen had said he thought the girls would remember that they actually would. Blue remembering your presence in her youngest days was likely to be the only thing that stopped her from killing you where you stood. You knew she could sense that she was absolutely terrifying you. You tried to do what Owen might, try to trust her, make her see that you trusted her but it was harder than you could’ve imagined with her hardly a few inches from your face. “Were you hiding so you could come see me?” You panicked and stumbled backwards when she took a step towards you, nearly tripping on your own feet. Where the hell was Owen when you needed him, you could always scream for him but it wasn’t like that would even help you at this point.

“Blue!” God the man’s timing couldn’t have been better. Owen’s voice was more than enough to distract Blue from whatever she was intending to do and giving you the chance to take some very large steps backwards. When Blue gave no indication that she was planning on following you, you took the chance and ran for the gate, slamming your hand on the close button behind you. Feeling Owen’s arms wrapped around you did nothing for the panic coursing through your body, did nothing to calm your frantic breaths. You didn’t notice Blue looking at the two of you with curiosity before retreating farther in to the paddock.

After having to deal with Hoskins’ appearance, and unfortunately overhearing even a little of what came out of his mouth, Owen needed a break. He needed to get away from Hoskins and calm himself down before he got one of you fired. It was shaping up to be a shitty day with the failed training and Hoskins showing up and all Owen would’ve liked to have done was go home, preferably with you, to just lay out in the hammock and relax. He had been contemplating taking the early day and gone off in search of you when he’d reached the paddock. His first assumption was that you’d gone in to clean up and he could see that he’d been right. Owen hadn’t expected to see Blue in there with you, he knew that you wouldn’t have gone in unless you were told the girls were all contained so he wasn’t sure what exactly had happened. It wasn’t like Blue was easy to miss, she was bigger than her sisters and she didn’t blend in like they did either.

The sight had damn near given him heart failure and it had been pure gut reaction to call out to Blue. He knew that you’d always felt that when the girls got bigger they’d turn on the two of you just like Owen had always hoped that the effort you’d both but in early on would pay off. He wasn’t sure if Blue was even intending to hurt you at all but he couldn’t contain the sigh of relief when you were safely back in the cage. Feeling your manic shaking when he wrapped his arms around you solidified Owen’s decision that the two of you were taking the rest of the day off.

“You sure you’re alright to drive yourself?” Owen asked, still letting you get in the vehicle. If Hoskins had a problem with Owen sending you home early then Owen figured he’d give the son of a bitch a few minute alone with Blue, see how he felt then. He wanted to go with you, but first he had to figure out how the hell it ended up that you were told it was safe to go in when Blue was still loose.

“I’ll be okay, it’s a short drive.” You were sure that he could see that you were still shaking a bit, which was probably why he was all but demanding you leave the paddock.

“Alright. I’ll be over as soon as I figure out what fucking idiot was in charge of getting the girls locked up. Just try and relax when you get there okay?”

“I’ll try, but I’m not making any promises.” You couldn’t be sure how long Owen would be, but you figured going home and cracking open something with an alcohol content would be a good start. You’d need it anyway now that you’d decided you wouldn’t let this continue. Whether it cost you your job or not Owen needed to know what InGen wanted to do with the raptor project. Standing face to face with Blue, not knowing if she was going to attack you or not terrified you more than anything except the thought that if this program worked Ingen would be trying to release more raptors on the world. They would never see that they were dangerous and unpredictable. “When you come over I need to talk to you.”

“I’ll try and be quick. Just be careful, drive safe,” He added, leaning through the open window for a quick kiss before he stepped away and watched you leave. So help whoever was responsible for this because Owen fully intended to unleash a new kind of hell on them. There was no reason Blue should have been loose, you shouldn’t even have been in the paddock alone. Any other time the guards InGen assigned were up on the catwalks making sure nothing happened.

When Owen walked past the paddock again he could see all four raptors out, as if nothing had even happened, like he’d imagined the whole thing. It only served to piss him off more and have him storming through the area in a rage.

“What did Hoskins say now?” He heard Barry laugh as he passed him.

“Who was in charge of locking the girls up so Y/N could go in and clean up their mess?”

“Couldn’t tell you his name, one of InGen’s I know that much. What’s going on?” Owen’s demeanor alone was enough to practically scream that something wasn’t right.

“Nothing, just wondering why they’d say the paddock was all clear when Blue was running loose. Someone tries to tell me they must’ve missed her and I’ll push them in the damn paddock because you don’t just not notice Blue. How the hell do you not notice one of the fucking raptors isn’t locked up?!”

“She wasn’t in there alone with Blue.” Almost no one could get away with being alone with any of the raptors, Blue least of all. She accepted Owen and she accepted you but no one else. But Barry wouldn’t place his bets on you or Owen if it came to being alone and in the paddock with her.

“You think I’d be making this big of a deal about it if she wasn’t?!”

“Is she okay?” Surely Owen would be seeing to your well-being otherwise, if something had happened… No, Owen wouldn’t be standing here if you were hurt.

“How do you think she is, she’s scared of out of her fucking mind because some asshole told her she was okay and she turns around have Blue standing right in front of her! She’s fucking lucky that Blue just stood there instead of attacking her!” Owen was absolutely seeing red. He wanted to find any and all responsible parties and subject them to the same sort of fear that you had been subjected to. “I told her to go home and see if she could try to calm down any, once I deal with this shit I’m leaving. Now what in the hell is going on?!” Owen snapped when he could hear all four raptors going off. Barry was quick to follow Owen back to the paddock, in the mood Owen was in and confrontation was bound to get really ugly really quick.

“I think that’s the one,” Barry warned Owen quietly when they reached the cage and found Blue with a grip on someone’s shirt through the gaps in the gate.

“Blue let him go,” Blue however, and for whatever reason, had different ideas. She had every intention of doing some damage to her captive, provided she could get a good enough grip without him escaping. “Blue!” She wasn’t going to continue ignoring Owen, but a hiss expressed her displeasure at having to release the man. “Barry tells me you were the one that was supposed to lock the girls up. Care to explain to me then why you said it was safe when Blue was running loose? Don’t fucking lie to me, I know you didn’t just miss her.” There was something to be said about what fear could do to someone, especially when that fear was caused by having just been pinned to a gate by a raptor and now being trapped between that raptor and its very pissed off alpha. The first time Owen had told you he wasn’t letting anyone mess with his girls he’d already been including you in that. Now someone, for whatever reason, had jeopardized not only your safety, but the well-being of the pack and he was not having any of it.

“He said it’d be fine, that she wouldn’t do anything anyway,” The man spat out as he scrambled away from the gate, not even chancing a glance back at the agitated raptors. The raptors shouldn’t have been his concern, not after what he’d just said.

Call it paranoia or just being afraid that when it came time you weren’t going to be able to say it, but the first thing you did when you got home was grab a notebook. You hadn’t even touched the drink you’d poured, just sat down and started writing everything you knew about InGen’s plans for the raptors. When you were done you tucked the notebook away in a specific drawer. You chose the drawer Owen knew to go in to if he needed to pick up paperwork and you were out, or just anything that you were leaving for him. At the very least it guaranteed you wouldn’t forget where you put it, at worst if the hint of paranoia was right and InGen was watching you, Owen would be able to find your note regardless.

The growing paranoia wasn’t helped any by the knock at your door. You knew it was still too early to be Owen, there was no way he’d dealt with stuff at the paddock that quickly. Even if he’d immediately found the responsible party you knew Owen would at the very least have them fired and he wouldn’t have gotten anything done that quickly. Instead it was Hoskins standing outside your door, making you immediately more uncomfortable than you’d already been and left you wishing that Owen was there.

“I think we had an agreement about you keeping your mouth shut and doing your job.” You didn’t like the tone of his voice. It wasn’t like you hadn’t been doing your job, and there was no possible way he could know that you were planning to tell Owen. You recognized a bad situation when you saw one and this was definitely turning in to a bad situation.

“I’ve kept my mouth shut and I’ve been doing my damn job, I think you need to leave,” You returned, moving to shut the door only to have it forced back open. Your first instinct was to turn and run for the closet securable area you could find. You made it all of two steps before you felt a sharp pain and your vision faded. When you came to you couldn’t be sure where you were, only that it definitely wasn’t home but seemed to still be the island.

“See, if you would’ve behaved it didn’t have to be like this.” Hoskins scolded, staying far enough away from what seemed like a makeshift cage that you were locked in that you couldn’t get at him. It was rickety, nothing but a simple chain link style fencing wrapped around metal bars. If you had wire cutters and he wasn’t there you could absolutely get out. “Easiest damn job in the world, just make sure that Grady stayed on track and got them raptors trained. You think I wouldn’t hear you, makin’ your little plan to tell him all about the project he’s really working on?”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” You lied.

“I thought you’d say that. See you weren’t supposed to catch on just yet. But we need better progress than your boy Owen is giving us and I think you’re nothing but a distraction around there. The two of you could’ve been useful, just needed to give him a little push to get those boys of his to listen. No better motivation than throwing you in with one of ‘em.” Shit. You knew, you knew that there was no way Blue had somehow been missed during the lock up, or that she’d somehow gotten free, at least not on her own. If she’d have been in when you first walked in you would’ve known, Blue would’ve been right by the gate. Of course her being in there with you was intentional. It shouldn’t have surprised you that Hoskins would risk your life to try because he thought it would force Owen to make the girls listen to him.

It was just as obvious that the man didn’t bother to pay attention to anything in your reports. The girls were still juveniles, unpredictable and rebellious. Whether or not they tried to track something was always up in the air and it was almost guaranteed that if they were tracking something living it would end up dead. They listened only nominally better if you were present while Owen was training them and if someone else tried to even get their attention they were entirely ignored. The way you and Owen were figuring, best case scenario was that you were years from really breaking through with them and getting them to really listen to commands if they ever did at all. You’d put in your reports more than once that if the program could be successful it would take years at best and the raptors would never listen to anyone but the person they’d built that lifelong bond with. Throwing the alpha’s girlfriend in the paddock with one of them was not the way to get anything done, except maybe get someone eaten.

“That wasn’t a push for anything! The only reason Blue didn’t eat me is because Owen being there distracted her enough that I got on the other side of the gate. You couldn’t stick Owen in the paddock with one of them and have him walk out with all of his limbs. You’re a god damn idiot, you can’t expect an animal that is still a juvenile to just obey commands!”

“That won’t matter by tomorrow sweet heart. You’ll be long off this island and as far as Owen is concerned, well he’ll just think you were playing him to get the job done quicker and we won’t have to worry about you slowing things down anymore.”

“He won’t believe that.”

“Sure he will, your little experiment to get them to listen to you without him didn’t work, you jumped ship. I’ve got one of mine to back it up, that you told him to call it clear then let the big one in with you. Face it, you’re replaceable. We’ll have someone else in there quick as you can blink and believe me they will make sure things are going how we want them.”

“Those raptors will never listen, not to Owen and sure as hell not to anyone else.”

“We’ll just see about that,” He laughed back at you, leaving you alone in the dark room.

“You wanna run that by me again!” Owen snapped. 

“Hoskins, he told me to wait until she was in the paddock then let the big one back out. I told him I couldn’t, that someone would get hurt but he swore it wouldn’t do anything, that it would back off as soon as you told it to.”

“So you fucking listened to him?! Some dumb ass that isn’t here more than once a month tells you the raptor won’t attack someone that’s in its paddock and you listen to him?! Does she look like something that doesn’t want to kill anyone that gets too close?” Owen was definitely more terrifying than Hoskins could be. He was supposed to say that you’d asked him to let the raptor back in but like hell he was going to lie about it right now. “I wasn’t anywhere near the damn paddock and you’re damn lucky nothing happened to her or I’d show you exactly what raptors can do.” Owen snapped, storming off and leaving Barry to deal with this. The piece of shit was lucky he was one of Hoskins or Owen would’ve had him fired so fast his head would spin. But he’d damn well be having a conversation with someone in the park about who InGen let anywhere near his paddock from that point on.

Saying Owen was in a hurry was an understatement. He was sure you weren’t going to take this news well and he’d have liked to have just come to your place and relaxed with you but plans changed. He was going to pick you up and go have a few words with administration about this bullshit. He didn’t want you working with anything that had to do with Hoskins, he’d convince someone to transfer you to park staff and keep you at the paddock that way but he’d be damned if you were going to spend another minute with someone who would’ve gotten you killed to try and prove a point.

Owen was relieved to reach your place and see that your vehicle was there, that you’d made it home alright and stayed there. It made him panic a little to see your door slightly ajar, but it wouldn’t be the first time you’d come home and forgotten to close it all the way. He still remembered the black eye you gave him the last time he came over and you didn’t close the door all the way. You hadn’t heard him coming up so really it was his own fault. But you weren’t waiting inside, just an untouched drink, your bag on the floor and nothing else seemed touched. Owen had almost managed to convince himself that maybe you’d gotten worried or uncomfortable and just gone to his place to wait for him, that you’d walked the short distance to somewhere that felt safe and familiar. It almost worked until he noticed your work drawer not quite closed all the way.

The notebook came with Owen when he sped back to the paddock. He wasn’t sure where you were, he’d searched all around your house, all around his and everywhere in between. He’d kept his eyes open the entire way back to the paddock but not so much as a sign of you. The only thing that Owen could think if all you’d left him was the notebook with InGen’s plans for the raptors and nothing else was that something had happened. You wouldn’t have left the house without leaving him some sort of an idea where you were going. He knew that he wasn’t thinking straight, that he couldn’t think straight right now. He needed someone’s help and Barry was the only other person he knew he could trust with this.

“Owen, she could be anywhere on the island, if she is even still on the island.”

“The only roads back to the park are guarded and Hoskins hasn’t come through any of them, no one else has either. You can’t tell me between when I sent her home by herself and when I got there he found a way to get her off the island from the half surrounded by cliffs!”

“That still leaves at least half the island and its all jungle. She doesn’t have her phone, we have no way to find her.” The look of concern on Barry’s face only grew when Owen stopped pacing and stared down in to the paddock where his raptors had been watching their alpha in concern. “No.”

“Not all of them, just Blue.”

“Owen no! They’ll barely listen inside the paddock and you want to let one out. They just showed you today that when they’ll even bother tracking anything they just kill it when they’re done!”

“She won’t, they’ll kill as a pack but Blue won’t kill Y/N. She had more than enough time to do it today and she didn’t even touch her. Hoskins was willing to risk her life because he thought it would make me make the girls listen. You think he wouldn’t do something worse to get his way?!”

“There’s another way Owen, there has to be.”

“What is it then? Tell me how else I’m supposed to find her before something happens to her! I sent her off by herself, if I hadn’t she wouldn’t be missing, Hoskins never would’ve had the chance to get anywhere near her. Don’t tell me there’s another way if you don’t know what it is. I’ve got raptors down there right now that can find her faster than we can even come up with a plan.” It was desperate, Owen knew that it was. But he had no way of knowing how far Hoskins would take this, or why he’d taken you in the first place. Obviously you’d been planning on telling him about what InGen wanted the raptors for but for all Hoskins knew you could’ve already said something.

Either way, as far as Owen was concerned the only important thing was that he got you back safely and time wasn’t on his side. He was sure you still had to be somewhere north of the park but that left way too much ground to cover. Blue was a risky option and letting her loose wasn’t a choice he would normally make but she’d shown him today that given the opportunity and on equal ground, she wouldn’t hurt you. Blue would be the one that might listen enough to find you, if Barry wouldn’t help then so be it.

“I’m having no part of this.” Owen expected as much, but as Owen descended to coral Blue off on her own Barry made no moved to stop him. The other three didn’t seem thrilled that Blue was getting to do something that they weren’t but Blue seemed to understand that this was something important.

Ordinarily Owen would get the girls to track something on scent, something strong. Right now all Owen had to work with was a jacked you’d left in the office a few weeks ago. Armed with a tracker for Blue’s location, Owen hoped it would be enough for her to go on and set her loose. She barely waited long enough for Owen to start following her on the bike before rocketing through the jungle. When she started to slow Owen shut off the bike and continued on foot. The sounds of the jungle masked Blue’s movements and Owen stayed hidden as they came upon what must’ve been one of the old park buildings. That was about the time that Blue disappeared from sight and Owen noticed Hoskins outside. Got you, you son of a bitch.

As long as you could hear Hoskins outside you were afraid to make any attempt to get out. Even touching the fence would make noise and noise would draw him back inside. You heard something else outside, before you could even try to figure out what caused the noise light flooded the room through a window that had previously been covered with overgrown jungle. Just as quickly as the light came you saw what caused the light and suddenly the cage felt a lot safer than it had before.

Blue had been fighting her instincts to hunt down the nearest food source, to run free. She knew that Owen needed her to focus. She had tried to tell him about the man and he understood, just like she understood that you were in trouble and Owen needed her to find you. That’s what she would do, she was going to find you. She could smell you in the building, along with the man that took you, but she would leave him for Owen. Alphas came first, get you then get the man. Blue circled around the building, slashing her way though some plants to get inside to you without being seen. She tried slashing at the metal keeping the door to your cage closed but it was too thick, the other metal wasn’t though. All it took was Blue leaping on the cage door to start pulling the metal free from the frame.

You were rushed with a sense of déjà vu, wondering where the hell Blue had come from while you were trapped somewhere with her. The weak aluminum was nothing against the raptor, pulling free from the frame as soon as she leapt on it. Rather than rushing at you like an easy meal, when Blue had pulled away the fencing she stuck her head through and called out to you, running towards the door then running back when you didn’t immediately follow. Clearly you were moving too slowly for her preference judging by the way she squeezed in to the space and started pushing you out. You finally started moving when you heard a familiar voice cry out in a way that made you more enraged than you’d been all day. Blue was still faster, skidding out the door as you ran out behind her.

“What did I say, a little encouragement and the beasts learn to listen.” You stayed behind Blue, you knew the murderous look in her eye, the one she usually reserved when she was hunting a pig or a deer or something else released for them to hunt. You could see Owen, doubled over on the ground near what looked like a discarded piece of old pipe. If Blue didn’t deal with Hoskins you were going to, the growl you heard you couldn’t be sure which of the two of you it came from. Hoskins wasn’t even smart enough to move when Blue started towards him, giving you a chance to run to Owen.

“Don’t,” You tried to warn when he took a step towards Blue. It was the same with all pack animals, if you threatened the pack you’d damn well better hide, the last thing you wanted to do was try and show your dominance to an animal ready to tear your head off. You knew how this was going to end, there wasn’t a thing you or Owen could do to stop Blue now, not when the man in front of her had kidnapped and caged one of her alphas and hurt the other in her presence. Hoskins being the idiot he was took your warning as a command to Blue.

“See, docile as a.” You had to turn away, bury your face in Owen’s shoulder so you didn’t have to watch at least. You nearly jumped out of your skin when you felt something pushing the two of you. It took what little you had left to not scream, not give Blue a reason to turn on the two of you as well.

Blue knew that your command wasn’t for her, that you wouldn’t interfere. It was her retribution to take for Hoskins taking you, for him hurting Owen. He was a threat to her pack and she wouldn’t stand for it, not after what he had done and not when he was standing right there in front of her with nothing separating them this time. She could sense your fear when she tried to get the two of you to move, you would grow out of that eventually, like Charlie would grow out of being so annoying. She got your attention very easily, but Owen took more nudging before he started to move, standing with your help. It was strange how small the two of you were starting to seem to her, how weak. It just meant she and her sisters would have to protect you more now that they were the big ones.

“Hoskins shouldn’t have set her loose, warned him they don’t listen.” Owen statement had you staring at him like he’d grown another head, before the realization dawned on you. Hoskins may have had Blue set loose in the paddock but the look on Owen’s face as he looked at her told you that it was Owen that let her out this time. He had set her loose to find you, gone against everything he knew better than to even attempt. By some miracle it had worked but the park was bound to find out. Intentionally releasing one of the raptors regardless of the reason…that wasn’t going to go over well at all.

“Good thing you followed her tracker. We should get her back and let the park know what happened, let them clean up this mess.” You couldn’t make yourself feel guilty for planning to dump this all on InGen, on Hoskins. This was what they wanted, field testing the raptors, using them out in the real world. This was what would happen, they would kill people anyone they saw as a threat. Owen had been right to think that the girls would remember your care when they were older, but this was far from a guarantee for it to happen every time.

If it hadn’t surprised you enough that Blue had led Owen to you and not tried to kill you both, it was even more surprising that she followed you back to the paddock with no issues save a cacophony of noise when the three of you returned. Barry looked relieved to see you both back, but one look at Blue before you’d wiped her off told him that everyone wasn’t so lucky. Still, he was on board enough with the plan to put this on Hoskins and that plan was probably the only thing that left the three of you with your jobs after ACU and some park people had shown up. You thought you played the distressed kidnap victim rather well.

It was dark by the time you were finally able to go home. Owen let you choose whether you went to his place or yours but made it clear he was staying with you. You told him that he should let you take him to the medic so they could have a look at his ribs but he refused as much as he did when you said you could stop by your place to get clothes so he could rest. By the time you finally got him home he had to be in what you would’ve considered an unreasonable amount of pain considering the rough ride back to the paddock, then to your place, then over to his. You were both too tired to even contemplate cooking and were grateful for whatever leftovers Owen had, which you reheated after forcing some painkillers on him.

"I told you so."

“Which I told you so is this one for?” You half laughed at him, though you could probably guess.

“Two for one. The girls remembered and you taking the job didn’t turn out to be a bad decision.”

“Well, I for one can’t argue with either of those.” Yes it was true that neither of you could say how far that bond with the girls could go, but in this instance it had probably saved your life twice. As far as the job, you’d sworn for a while it was going to end badly but despite the day’s ordeal it hadn’t. There wasn’t going to be any more of InGen’s underhanded interference with the girls. Their training was going to be purely for research purposes, never to be used to make raptors in to the weapons of war that Hoskins had hoped for. From now on it would just be the seven of you, at least once Barry got comfortable enough but it seemed like he was warming up well enough to Delta.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I should be the one asking you that, I’ve just got a headache you’ve probably got broken ribs.”

“They aren’t broken, they’re just bruised up.”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so, I know broken ribs baby. Even if they were it would’ve been worth it.”

“Worth getting your ass beat and having your raptor save you?” You teased.

“Worth protecting my girls, I see the thanks I get.” Joking aside, his ribs looked like hell, a bruise had already formed where the metal pipe had connected and you were amazed that Owen said nothing was broken. He got hurt trying to protect you and as far as Owen was concerned it was damage well worth it. You weren’t going to argue with him about it, he was allowed to protect you, you loved that about him, at least when it didn’t result in him being hurt. Still, you couldn’t help but be glad that you had someone in your life that would go to such lengths for you.

“Is my poor injured baby feeling unloved?”

“Very unloved, even the girls cared more about you than me.”

“That’s because they know their alpha can take a hit, had to make sure the delicate one was okay.”

“Delicate my ass, I know damn well you would’ve kicked the shit out of Hoskins.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly why I was the one that got myself knocked out and locked in a damn cage. You’re the alpha for a reason Owen, just like there’s a reason I’m just your girlfriend.”

“Like hell you are,” Owen scoffed “I don’t bring in the cavalry for just my girlfriend, you’ve got to be pretty damn important.”

“You’re pretty damn important to me too Owen. You know that right?”

“I know, just like you know how much you mean to me.”

“Mmhmm. I love you Owen.”

“Love you too baby, now quit gawking at my battle scars and lie down. We both need the sleep.” Hell, he sounded like he was about to pass out whether you lay your head down or not.

“Just one more thing,” You said softly, giving him a kiss before you curled up against him, pulling up the blankets and using his shoulder as a pillow. You nestled further against him as he wrapped his arms around you.

“What is it?”

“You’re definitely my hero, thought you should know that.” You may have missed the smile that spread across Owen’s face but you didn’t miss the way he kissed the top of your head, a way that he always reserved for when he was particularly happy. If you had asked him he would have told you that of course he was happy, how could he not be happy right now? It wasn’t contentment at having you safe that crossed his mind as he fell asleep, it was one single thought. I’m her hero.


End file.
